Tuesday, September 24, 2013

I have agonized over this for weeks now but finally I have decided to close my selling website (KM Primitives) and it's not because I don't get orders - I DO...But I just am needing to stop my sewing and concentrate on other things now.It has been over 10 years of doing what I love but as of late it has become a challenge to get them done.

I stopped my paid website over 2 years ago and started this one thinking it would slow me down some – but it didn’t (and basically that’s really a good thing).

I appreciate all the friends and customers I have made over these years and hope you will continue to go to MY COLONIAL HOME blog and keep up with me.~ Every now and then I may offer something special on my other blog...like a one of a kinditem that will be made just that once and then sold ~

I will also still sell my patternsAnd speaking of patterns…watch my blog here for a sale on my printed patterns…I have lots of them printed and ready to ship.

So please keep visiting me here...PLEASE.

The people and the connections that this business has led me to is beyond words.I have friends and customers from across the globe and that is not stretching it either.South Africa, The Netherlands, Australia to name a few countries that I have had customers and still keep in contact with them…what a small world this business has made for me.

ALSO…I’m not sure but I may be selling off some of my Wool FeltI haven’t decided on which colors yet.There are a couple bolts that have not been washed and some that has been prepared and ready to use.

So watch for that announcement on here and my blog.

Blessings to all of you – I am totally grateful to all of you.

I will keep this up until the items below are sold...then it closes.

And Doug, I THANK HIM THE MOST…he has been in the background in this business but without his help I never would have gotten this far. Washing/preparing fabric, book keeping, traveling, running to the post office with shipments, setting up show displays, my bad moods and temper at times of stress…and more.He has been my backbone through it all.And Saturday we will celebrate 50 years of marriage – and he stuck with me through all of this! Wow!

Monday, September 23, 2013

I think Fall has actually arrived here in southeastern Wisconsin – not only because it is officially Fall, but the weather finally feels like Fall… very nippy in the early morning and at night. Just makes one perkier!

Friday night we went to St. Charles, IL to a Folk Art/Primitives show and met up with Marie from Primitives By Old Lady Morgan and her husband Ed…it was a small show but nice things. Neither of us found anything special…I can’t remember what Marie bought except for a new punch needle and I bought a punch needle pattern from : https://www.etsy.com/shop/thecooperscottage and some gourds.

I forgot to take a picture of it and I see she doesn’t have that one on her Etsy either. I’ll try and take a picture later. Then we all went to eat at Houlihans – both of us forgot to bring our cameras.Now who does that when they are trying to get ‘fodder’ for their blogs!

Marie and I did a swap and we thought this was the best place for us to meet to exchange our swap items.

Marie wanted one of my traditional Penny Rugs and I wanted one of her latest Pumpkins.The picture just would not come clear so it’s kind of fuzzy.

(click pictures to enlarge)And she includes the little Pumpkin and a Pumpkin make-do.His head is on a bobbin but I couldn’t get a good picture if I got the whole thing in.

So that inspired me to get my Fall decorations out. I didn’t realize I had so many Pumpkins and gourds – And NO … I’m not buying any more – well, except for the real ones for outside.I need to discipline myself here lately.

The table was full of them – I used up about 90% of them and will fill in with what’s left later on. I need to do this in stages as I poop out quite easily.

And the Bittersweet – some was new from last week and the rest was stored in basement from last year.It doesn’t look like much but it goes a long way in decorating.

This hutch needs work – I have never ever been happy with anything I have ever displayed on here (except of course the plates and baskets those are keepers and will stay…the other shelves I have always had a problem. I think mainly because the space between is so shallow it’s hard to put anything of size on them so it always has small things and looks junky. Any ideas???

Well, that’s it for the inside – I don’t think I will put any more out.The most decorating is in the dining room but it’s my favorite room so it gets most of the attention for most seasons and holidays.

I’ll put a bit in the screen room and then of course the outside but that will happen after we go to the last flea market of the year over in Elkhorn.Anyone living close enough to go remember I said it was the last one and it’s always a great one.

And as if this post wasn’t long enough I keep remembering things…lolBut it wouldn’t be a Karen post if it wasn’t long and chatty now would it?

We went to a rummage sale on Saturday and found 2 twin quilted bedspreads done in White and Yellow. She was selling them $20 for one or the pair for $35 so I took both of them.I’m thinking on twin beds or one twin for the 2nd guest room. I like the idea of Yellow as just the spreads but not sure otherwise – maybe like Red.

And RED you say!!!Well YES…see this floor cloth – it’s Yellow and Red and it was my inspiration for these 2 colors.We bought this floor cloth at the same garage sale for $5.00It’s a bit more Yellow looking than in the picture.She didn’t like it because she thought it was too Yellow and she wanted more of a Tan.Now I didn’t mind this because we had one made about 4 years ago and it turned out the same so it didn’t bother me at all.

Oh and I finally found my fabric for the sofa that we’re having recovered.2 different websites carry it and have plenty so I will get it ordered very soon.We are delighted as nothing else was pleasing us once we decided on a fabric and thought we couldn’t get it…but now we can.We already have a chair with it on so we know it will blend well with the new settle.

Any one that goes to Ohio to the Simple Goods show I found this bulletin so am posting it for your convenience.We’re hoping to go this year finally after not going for 3 years.You should be able to print it out – if not e-mail me and I’ll send it to you or go to: https://www.facebook.com/simplegoodsgals

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

I finally bought an Arnette Santa!!He will hopefully grace the mantle of the fireplace this Christmas – that’s if he looks good all by himself up there – the wall behind is awfully tall.Maybe a large wreath of greens or how about a twig wreath on the wall above. Not sure but I just know that’s where I want him.

(Click pictures to make them larger)

His face is unbelievable – she does them in clay.

Got a few other items too.2 Olde World Santa rag stuffed pillows.

I bought the pillow with the feather tree first then saw the framed one. Just had to have them both.

On Saturday we went to The Elegant Farmer to buy some Cherry pie filling.I have made my own from scratch, bought different kinds in the stores and markets but this one from them is the best yet…been buying it for a few years now. It’s sweet but yet there’s still a tartness to the cherries…just perfect.

It turned out quite nice…and delicious too.

That’s all I have for you today – I’m kind of running out of things to post about until I get my Fall things out.

Oh…except for this – we’re looking for upholstery fabric to have our large sofa recovered.I never thought I’d be in such a dilemma over this task…I can not find anything I like because the one I want is discontinued.So we went to IL on Friday to a huge upholstery fabric store. Found two but not sold on them.The sofa will be across from the new settle shown here.

This fabric here is really darker than it looks – it has the Black and Mustard in it but because it’s a cut fabric it shows light or dark depending on how it is laying.

The Goldish Mustard one is the other choice but it’s a much thinner material.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Did you ever wonder where it got its name?Leather Britches Beans or 'Shucky Beans' refers to an antique technique of preserving beans that was closely associated with the American South and particularly the Appalachian region. Prior to the widespread use of freezing or canning beans were preserved by stringing them on a length of thin twine and then air-drying them over several weeks. Beans were picked at a stage when the seeds were well developed but the outer hull remained green. Leather Britches beans were re-hydrated and cooked very slowly in an excess of water containing a wedge of bacon or ham.

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Here is my tutorial for making them for display in your home.I notice they are being talked about on forums and blogs with Fall approaching.

I made a small garland of them last year and have them hanging on the back of a pie safe.This was my first attempt at making them so the garland is rather small…being I never made them I didn’t know how to judge how long to make the string to start with. I also used Cranberries on mine.

Today I started a new one so here’s the steps that I do.

I bought 3 lbs of Green Beans at the farmer’s market(I have enough left to make 2 more clusters of beans on the next one I make)Frozen Cranberries – fresh ones are not in season yet.(Look in the vegetable section of the frozen foods isle)USE THE CRANBERRIES 'FROZEN'...DO NOT THAW THEMthey will turn mushy and squish if you do.If you do this when 'fresh' Cranberries are availablethey are perfect to use that way as they are 'hard'.

First make sure the stems are off but the pointed tip is perfect to leave on.Take a large darning needle and thread it with white store string - Kite string will do fine.(I started out this new one with a 60” length of string)

Make a couple of knots right on top of each other – hope you can see it in this picture.Then with the string that’s left make a loop and knot it so you have something to hang the garland with – when you are finished you will just make a temporary loop until they are totally dried, then you will knot and loop same as the beginning loop.

Thread your beans on the string, sticking the needle through the middle of each bean – not straight down the center of the bean, just through the center, so both ends of the bean are loose – try not to put the needle through a bean…they tend to be wet and will seep liquid and take longer to dry.

(Hopefully you can see the size of the needle)

Pierce the Green Bean and slide it all the way to the endwhere you have the knots/loop…repeat.I used 10 Green Beans then 10 Cranberries…repeated until I got the string filled.

Be careful what you lay your Cranberries on to work with…they tend to bleed when thawing and pierced.

Find a place to hang them to dry.(our basement was the best) – they like it dry.Remember at the beginning the Cranberries may drip a bit.

I’m showing you this picture because this is how the Cranberries got smaller by loosing moisture,See the space already and this was only about 1/2 hour later.

And this was about an hour after stringing.Look at how far down I moved the clusters.As they dry move the clusters of beans and cranberries closer together.When totally dry then make the loop at the end.

I hope I made this clear…it’s really easy to dobut sometimes being shown makes it clearer.Enjoy…let me see your creations when you make them…please!

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This morning we went to a rummage sale…AGAIN!I think I see a pattern happening here!!I saw something on one of the tables and thought it wasa twin bedspread – but upon opening it up I foundit was a shower curtain and window curtains.Now I didn’t need a new one for our upper bathbut what we had in there was all white and these had theYellow/Blue/Reds in it like the small accents in our guest bath.Now this bathroom is different than the rest of the house – it’s rather ‘fun’ but I won’t ever change it because I need something different in at least one room of the house –I don’t care for dark bathrooms.So this one is a beach theme and I like it even more now because the new items spark it up a lot.

Here’s the older shower curtain/window – nice but a lot of white.

And now….a bit of color

Is it a keeper

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I forgot I bought this a couple weeks ago It is an old Green etched jar – now I know there was a top to it at one time but I’ve been looking at different places and can’t seem to find one for it.I tried to get a good picture so you can see the etching.Not sure what I’m going to use it for but liked the green.AND…if you know anything about this type of jar let me know!

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Last week I made two candle mats for FallThey are for sale if anyone wants one.….These will be the last items I make….

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